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How long does it take to comfortabley fly at night and how do those of
you that fly at night navigate in the dark?

As with many things in aviation and life, it depends on the person as to how
long it takes to get comfortable at night. Personally, I don't recall ever
being uncomfortable, but I do notice a bit more attentiveness to detail when
I'm flying at night. Things like holding altitude and scanning flight and
engine instruments take on a bit more importance for me after the sun
disappears.

Navigating at night is more difficult - and easier. Navigation techniques
are the same as during the day, but you obviously need to use different
landmarks. Also, it seems you can see *much* farther at night than during
the day - mainly due to city lights being visible from much farther away
(assuming, of course, you're in an area with city/town lights to be seen).
This can be very helpful and confusing at the same time until you recognize
the layouts of various towns/cities. The town you think is Homeville may
actually be the city 30 miles away from home.

Many planes these days have a GPS (either panel-mounted or handheld) to
greatly ease navigation at night. If not, radio navaids are very handy.

Or I guess a better question is what techniques do you use at night to
navigate that are different then how you navigate during the day?

I just pick different landmarks - usually towns or airports - when flying
visually.

Do you just fly the altitudes that you fly during the day time to stay
safely from getting too close to anything?

I don't tend to fly any higher at night, but I tend to fly higher than many
others during the day. It's rare I need to be on the lookout for towers or
obstructions at my altitude even when I'm flying day VFR. I fly in the
mid-Atlantic and there is usually an airport within gliding distance should
the need arise.

I know the easy answer is to go up with an instructor, and I plan too,
but I wanted to hear from you all first and see what you do
differently at night versus the day and how many of you actually take
advantage of night flying.

I try to stay proficient at night for a few reasons. First, I find night
flight very enjoyable. During the summer it's much smoother at night. If
you're flying to get someplace and flying IFR, there are far fewer planes in
the sky at night meaning you can usually get more direct routing. I find it
more peaceful and I like how the landscape is lit up at night. My favorite
time to fly is dusk when there's just enough light to see ground detail, but
dark enough for streetlights and the like to come on to highlight structures
and highways. I also tend to fly much more for utilitarian than recreational
reasons lately and being proficient at night flight allows much greater
flexibility in schedules.

--
John T
http://sage1solutions.com/blogs/TknoFlyer
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